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Have guitarists FINALLY accepted Line 6?

04-03-2013, 01:52 PM

For the longest time, purists and guitar snobs all over the world thumbed their nose at Line 6. I'll admit, their early stuff was groundbreaking, but not quite up to snuff when compared with a real tube amp.

However, with the release of the HD series....it seems like I'm seeing more and more guys playing out live with POD HDs, even without amps... I've talked to multiple guys that do most of their recording on these units, and really like them. I mean, in a perfect world, we'd all love a massive vintage amp collection...but these units are so good...it seems pretty hard to justify.

What about you guys? Do you think that the guitar world has finally accepted them?

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I've gigged with Line 6 equipment since the days of the original POD and still use a PodXT as part of my main rig. I love the sound of a real tube amp dialed into its sweet spot, but it is rare to be playing in the perfect situation to have a tube amp dialed in. For me the Line 6 equipment provided versatility and ability to have good tone and different volumes.

I haven't tried the HD series since I'm no longer playing gigs. My current PODxT still meets my needs. Perhaps I will try one when I have some extra cash looking for home.

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For the longest time, purists and guitar snobs all over the world thumbed their nose at Line 6. I'll admit, their early stuff was groundbreaking, but not quite up to snuff when compared with a real tube amp.

However, with the release of the HD series....it seems like I'm seeing more and more guys playing out live with POD HDs, even without amps... I've talked to multiple guys that do most of their recording on these units, and really like them. I mean, in a perfect world, we'd all love a massive vintage amp collection...but these units are so good...it seems pretty hard to justify.

What about you guys? Do you think that the guitar world has finally accepted them?

i can appreciate your flair for the dramatic.

i bought a line6 flextone 1x12" combo and extension cab when they first came out. i gigged the heck out of that setup in a very active local band for almost 6 years. i still have it. it never once let me down and allowed me to cop a lot of different tones without having to lug around a ton of gear. i really appreciated how easy it was to record with it too. i could go direct into the board and still make it work.

Comment

For the longest time, purists and guitar snobs all over the world thumbed their nose at Line 6. I'll admit, their early stuff was groundbreaking, but not quite up to snuff when compared with a real tube amp.

However, with the release of the HD series....it seems like I'm seeing more and more guys playing out live with POD HDs, even without amps... I've talked to multiple guys that do most of their recording on these units, and really like them. I mean, in a perfect world, we'd all love a massive vintage amp collection...but these units are so good...it seems pretty hard to justify.

What about you guys? Do you think that the guitar world has finally accepted them?

i can appreciate your flair for the dramatic.

i bought a line6 flextone 1x12" combo and extension cab when they first came out. i gigged the heck out of that setup in a very active local band for almost 6 years. i still have it. it never once let me down and allowed me to cop a lot of different tones without having to lug around a ton of gear. i really appreciated how easy it was to record with it too. i could go direct into the board and still make it work.

Not trying to be dramatic...just a question. My first real amp was a Flextone II with the floorboard. Absolutely loved that thing... However, back then...even here on HC, there was a fair amount of hate for all things Line 6. The Flextone did a lot of things well, but the Marshall Plexi was especially nice sounding, IMO.

The Line6 and most other modelers (including the Blackstar HD and the VST based systems like Guitar Rig) do something nasty in how the higher order harmonics interact. I don't know exactly how to describe it, but I can't unhear it and it just sounds extremely unpleasant to me. I just hate that interference sound or whatever it is.

Curiously, I don't hear it in the Vox modelers. Very happy with my Tonelab.

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I'm a happy adopter of new technologies. I've been using Line 6 for years... I had a FlexTone II (which sucked) and then used a Tone Port to record direct to my PC for a few years. It was great.

Then, I got a Spider II combo, which had a remarkably great clean channel; I even gigged coffee shops with it.

Now, I use a Line 6 M9. It's excellent---I don't care that it's not analog or that I don't have the $50,000 worth of actual pedals it models. In fact, I'm playing an out of town gig this weekend, and I'm running my guitar into my M9, into a DI box with speaker sim, and straight into the PA. I've done this a few times for gigs, and it sounds excellent.

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I think a lot of their stuff is used throughout the industry these days. On the professional stage, I don't see a whole lot of their stuff, mostly just their effects. The DL4 has to be the one of the longest running, most popular digital delays by now. I see them everywhere. I think their amps have mostly been adopted by cover band guitarists seeking to get a bunch of different tones out of one amp, and amateurs looking for cheap, loud and versatile. Their stuff shows up in studios fairly often. I think the pods and such are very useful tools for getting ideas, for silent practicing, and for doing scratch tracks in the studio. I would venture to say they probably show up in churches a lot where stage volume is almost always an issue.

I think Line 6 is a lot like Peavey, in that early on it had a stigma attached to it as beginner gear, but as time goes on, people are realizing that it's pretty solid budget stuff.

If I ever get back heavily into playing with cover bands, which I think will probably happen, I will definitely look into some line 6 type of amp that has the built in effects and can get reasonable overdrive type sounds at decent volumes.

http://www.reverbnation.com/thedubiouscapture

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I use an M9 in my cover band pedalboard and I've owned a PODxt, Pod Pro and Duoverb head over the years. Their stuff generally doesn't sound as good as other pieces of gear I own but they are much more conveinient to use and honestly by the time the audience hears it through the house PA it doesn't matter anyway. The other thing is that their stuff is always improving unlike other companies that I could name.

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My first Line6 amp is, funny enough, the one I still use the most often at home when I actually plug an electric to hear it loud and not record. It's a Flextone 1.0 and I have the huge floorboard that goes with it and works with none of the new stuff (was very expensive when I bought it and is a really cool piece of gear). Having that floorboard, I later bought the compatible Pod 2.0 bean on Ebay which i used for gigging because it's so crazy light and did a decent enough job for gigging, also the Pocket POD (which I don't like much and is sitting on a shelf). Then I jumped into the PodHD bandwagon and got the wrong one: the HD400. Just should have bought the 500 instead.

With this Line6 mini collection, you'd think I'm a line6 whore. No. I am an enthousiastic THR10 user for recording and so the HD400 is collecting dust as well as the other line6 things I own (except that flextone amp).

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Steve Howe was using Line 6 amps and modeling guitar last time I saw him with Yes. I can see the convenience, given the wide variety of stuff he's recorded over the years.Honestly, it all sounded like a modeler, though. I wasn't impressed.

My first Line6 amp is, funny enough, the one I still use the most often at home when I actually plug an electric to hear it loud and not record. It's a Flextone 1.0 and I have the huge floorboard that goes with it and works with none of the new stuff (was very expensive when I bought it and is a really cool piece of gear). Having that floorboard, I later bought the compatible Pod 2.0 bean on Ebay which i used for gigging because it's so crazy light and did a decent enough job for gigging, also the Pocket POD (which I don't like much and is sitting on a shelf). Then I jumped into the PodHD bandwagon and got the wrong one: the HD400. Just should have bought the 500 instead.

With this Line6 mini collection, you'd think I'm a line6 whore. No. I am an enthousiastic THR10 user for recording and so the HD400 is collecting dust as well as the other line6 things I own (except that flextone amp).

Yup, I went in to buy the HD400...but after comparing them (and the 500 was on a great sale)...I settled on the 500. Very glad that I did. I use it all the time!

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I used a PODxt Live for a few years as my gigging rig. That into a DI box straight into the board. I set up my output level, sound guy set his level and we adjust the EQ very slightly (each room and system is a bit different). Always got compliments on my sound.

Unfortunately that particular PODxt Live has seen better days. It fell off the top of my truck on a highway but still worked just fine afterwards. However, it hasn't survived my toddler, so the power cable has to be in JUST RIGHT for it to remain powered up, no matter how many times I've pulled it apart and resoldered the power connector.

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I have the Dream Rig and it's made this novice a better player in just the 8 months I've owned it. For one thing, it inspired me to play more, which I think is the best that can be said of any piece of gear (the Dream Rig happens to be three pieces, but I digress).

Much as the company has tried to expand its horizons and appeal, Line 6 stuff still isn't for everyone. IMO, the POD HD500, for instance, comes with a huge learning curve that requires many hours of dedicated study to get the hang of. And the DT series amps aren't far behind. The JTVs, on the other hand, couldn't be simpler to use, and they are elegant, finely crafted instruments that sound exceptional. My Korean JTV 59 required minimal setup out of the box, literally, before it played like a dream. More often than not, I prefer to play if over either my Les Paul StandardTraditional or my American Strat, and not just because of the quality of the modeling (which is outstanding) - the Tyler-spec'd magnetic pickups sound fantastic on their own. So I guess my point is that, while for me Line 6 stuff is right up my alley, it may simply be "too much" for the average grab 'n' go Tele 'n' Twin player who has been perfectly happy with what he (or she) has been playing for the last 20 years. And I probably would have given up trying to learn to play guitar a little less than a year ago had I not taken the plunge and bought myself the Dream Rig as one last foray into learning the instrument. Now, I'm sort of off and running as they say, though I most certainly have a very long way to run.

All I'm saying is that I know a lot of young musicians and pretty much everyone plays a Fender or Gibson/Epi through a Hot Rod or an AC15/30. The modeling stuff is probably pretty popular in the cover gig circuit but I think a Line 6 would get looked at suspiciously in a local scene gig.

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honeyiscool wrote:All I'm saying is that I know a lot of young musicians and pretty much everyone plays a Fender or Gibson/Epi through a Hot Rod or an AC15/30. The modeling stuff is probably pretty popular in the cover gig circuit but I think a Line 6 would get looked at suspiciously in a local scene gig.

I never had a problem when I was gigging in my original band. Actually, the sound guys always loved me.